iCloud Beta Previews Web Versions of Notes and Reminders

Leaks first appeared in May that Apple was planning to add web versions of the Reminders and Notes iOS apps to iCloud.com for access from desktop Macs and PCs.

The iCloud Beta portal has since been activated for developers enrolled the iOS 6 beta at beta.icloud.com. The site displays "Beta" tags on Calendar, Find My iPhone, Notes, and Reminders -- the last two being new additions to iCloud.

The web version of Find My iPhone has been polished, with a battery status icon as one new feature. The add-on gives users with lost gadgets some indication of how long they have to find their device.

Notes is a fairly faithful reproduction of the skeuomorphic notepad on the iPhone. Users can create, edit, and delete notes, with updates reflecting on iOS devices in near-real time.

The Calendar app doesn't have any immediately noticeable changes, other than the removal of Reminders to its own app:

Apple says it is using iCloud to "increase customer delight". With more than 125 million iCloud users as of April, it's unsurprising that the company is focusing so much effort on the service -- both on iOS and the Web. The new iCloud web apps will be live for all users with the launch of iOS 6, expected this fall.

The site also has notifications now as previously rumoured and leaked. Currently it's available for Find My iPhone and Calendar, and settings for it can be accessed by clicking on your name to view your profile.

Yes, and it should be available for all devices that connect to the internet. e.g., Macs, Airports, iPhones, iPodTouches, iPads, etc. Then Apple needs to get serious about helping stop thieves and stop the reselling and reactivation of stolen merchandise.

As to apps in the cloud, Apple and developers need to learn a lot about graceful fallbacks for when the cloud is not available and for when connection speeds are slow. We need to be able to do our work without a connection to the net.

Why would anyone use Notepad instead of a piece of paper or lists? There are dedicated apps, like Grocery IQ, that are infinitely more usefull for that kind of stuff.

Click to expand...

Because they are already there. I have over 600 apps on my iPad with close too that on my iPhone & iPod Touch. I very seldom get past the 1st page of apps using Apple's weak app finder. I've gone as far as moving the Apple standard icons off of page 1 & moving them to the end of the list. I don't play games so the Game Center have been moved to the end. I do all of my App syncing through my Mac so the App icon has also been moved to the end. Now I need to move some more. This way may be good for 10 - 50 apps but that is about all. Give me my Mac file system.

My wife takes notes at church using the Notes app on our iPad. I've used it for making shopping lists. A 10 item list for us is very long & seldom done. I also use it for price comparison. Years ago before the Newton I used an HP99 with its built-in spreadsheet program. That worked the best for many things like what I do. All of this advancement in electronic devices & I still like the old pretouch better. But we do have to have our iToys.

It is the visible stiching in the notepad cover that really lets me know I'm dealing with a piece of quality merchandise. A cheaper cover might use glue to seal the seams, but you know that will split eventually and then your cover will fall apart and your note pad and your reminder slips will be lose and could get exposed to rain or something. A nicely stiched leather notepad cover will keep them all together and organized.

I'm glad I stick with Apple because of their insistance on this level of quality.

MacRumors attracts a broad audience
of both consumers and professionals interested in
the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on
purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms.